S is for Sick

Yup, everyone except Rich is still sick.  We have several friends moving this weekend, and I am not going to be able to help.  Rich will have to go alone.  Last night Eliza had a major tummyache, and was very uncomfortable.  CJ keeps coughing and sneezing.  I have a sore throat and am just tired.  Luckily I was able to take it easy yesterday since I did so much cleaning and laundry the night before.  I was too tired to update last night, I had such a terrible migraine.  I don't usually get them, so I knew I was really getting sick.  Today we will spend a lot of time with orange juice.  Today I also need to do some canning.  I am making kohlrabi pickles and dilled pickled green beans.  Yummy!  Tasty stuff.  Lucky for me neither thing is too difficult to make. 

So we spent a lot of time just coloring in the play room, coloring on the easel on the front porch, and cleaning up dried out play dough.  We talked about all kinds of S words, watched Sesame Street, watched Leap Frog Letter Factory and found S words in their board books.  We listened to Stellaluna and Sebastian and his Roller Skates on Storyline Online.  Thank you guys for that awesome link!  They loved Stellaluna and we had to read it twice.  I asked them what they learned about fruit bats, and they told me they are nocturnal and herbivores.  I was thrilled.  We talked about how it is good to have friends who are different from you and how we can learn from our friends.  I don't know how much sunk in, but it is something we will revisit often.

We made silly faces, and the kids told me lots of silly jokes.  We sang all their favorite songs.  We practiced the S sound, made our letter poster and wrote the letter in the carpet.  Both of them are getting better at allowing me to assist them in tracing, holding their pencils and showing them what the expectations are. We practiced a little bit of writing, and matched some letter cards.  Eliza slithered like a snake on the floor, then decided she would draw one on her paper.  Awesome!  Most importantly we sat and played together, and relaxed.  Hopefully everyone will feel better today.  For breakfast we had strawberry milk and pancakes with strawberries and syrup.  Lunch was squash soup.  Dinner was smashed potatoes, steakburgers (grilled hamburger patties), salad, and sauteed spaghetti squash with sauce.  Oh my goodness super delicious food.  Then we had to have some soft serve with strawberries.  Helps with the sore throat don't you know. 

I feel like I have just been spinning wheels over the past few days.  With everyone feeling icky we haven't made any progress.  I think I am just expecting too much from myself.  They are still babies, and they are not going to school, or even at that age yet where they should be.  I am just afraid that I will sabotage my own efforts if I don't stick to a schedule of some sort.  Silly I know, but I was so used to the public school system, that I really need to get out of that mindset.  I am saddling myself with those thoughts, and need to realize that the beauty of homeschooling is that the kids and I can work to our own strengths and interests.  We can spend time on things that they need or want to learn.  We can work around our schedules, and not have to stop a project due to the clock.  We can just put on the kids' safari hats and dig for fossil shells all we want, and that is such a marvelous thing.  They absorb so much, and teach me so much.  This is a sweet sweet life, and I feel so satisfied.  Thanks for reading!